Ps3 v 360

[Thedelldays]

so..in todays gaming market..is a PS3 better for games (only) than an 360.or for gaming are they equal...?

[St Marco]

To be honest with you this generation will be known as the "multi-platform" generation. Most big title games are now on both consoles rather then just on one. However if you compare those multiplatform games they generally score higher on 360.

 

In terms of the market (which i work in) the PS3 would be a bad investment for the money it cost right now. Since the death of HD-Dvd Blu-Ray has not taken over the HD market like some predicted. In fact its sales are still at the 5%-7% mark which means the general public have yet to take to it. This is mainly due to the fact people don't know the difference between a normal dvd and a HD disc. Most people dont consider the difference that great nor worth buying their dvd collection again for. Add to this the primary reason for ending the format war (cost) has not happened. It still costs £25+ for a Blu-Ray disc and that doesnt look to be coming down in price to match the £8 for a new dvd. When the prices are down for the discs and the players then it could start to challenge it.

But because your after games only then i think that just boils down to a personal preference really. Both consoles have their own exclusives and future exclusives.

But in solid factual terms there are 40 games on the 360 with a metascore of 85%+ and 26 for the PS3. So in terms of critical acclaim there are better reviewed games for the 360. But it is horses for courses. My all time fav game is Shenmue. That was out for the Dreamcast. I would say it was worth buying that console for just that 1 game. I didnt pay for my PS3 but i would say it would be worth paying it for Metal Gear Solid 4 and GT5 when that comes out.

[Thedelldays]

cheers..

 

i was thinking of just gaming..IE titles and graphics

 

i assume the graphics are equal and the only reason the PS3 is more expensive is because of the Blu-ray player????

 

also, isnt it true that if Blu-ray takes off they will bring out a player to plug into your 360??

 

cheers anyway mate

[Scummer]

It still costs £25+ for a Blu-Ray disc and that doesnt look to be coming down in price to match the £8 for a new dvd.

 

I'd agree that discs are too expensive, but they aren't that much. They are between 15-20 quid. Which, if you are right that they were £25+, shows that prices are coming down.

[mynameisthehulk]

I predict this thread will end up an all out war between St Marco and anyone who has purchased a PS3

[St Marco]

I predict this thread will end up an all out war between St Marco and anyone who has purchased a PS3

 

Haha well the problem is i own all three of the consoles so i think im in a un-biased position to comment on them. They all have their pluses and all have their minus'. People naturally want to defend what they have paid for so it is easier just to slag me off etc.. The truth is that i have said for the best part of 2 years that the PS3 is a console in trouble and not worth the amount paid on it, but because of that i come across as a 360 fanboy when really im just giving buisness advice.

 

The ironic thing is that the PS3 has been on sale now for 100 weeks and this is its graph compared to the other 2 consoles

 

As you can see that is a nasty down curve for Sony. This is what i tried to explain to people but again it comes across like im a fanboy when im just giving the facts.

At the end of the day i couldn't care less as i like all three of the consoles for very different reasons. I use my PS3 for watching films, my 360 for games and my Wii for when we have friends over. At heart i am a hardcore gamer, games like Gears of War will apeal more to me then say Cooking Mama.

Right now the PS3 is losing 100k units a week over the 360. Games wise the 360 is shiffting almost 5 games to every 1 PS3 game, there are reasons why it is doing those numbers. But if you say why your be called a fanboy!

[Scummer]

The reason people get annoyed with you is that you state things as fact, when they are anything but.

 

That graph, for example, doesn't seem to show the Wii, PS3 and 360 against each other, as you said. It shows each of them against their previous generation.

 

So the Wii is selling more than the Gamecube (no surprise there), the PS3 is selling less than the PS2, and the 360 is about flat with the Xbox.

 

Are those worldwide figures, by the way?

[St Marco]

The reason people get annoyed with you is that you state things as fact, when they are anything but.

 

That graph, for example, doesn't seem to show the Wii, PS3 and 360 against each other, as you said. It shows each of them against their previous generation.

 

So the Wii is selling more than the Gamecube (no surprise there), the PS3 is selling less than the PS2, and the 360 is about flat with the Xbox.

 

Are those worldwide figures, by the way?

 

The graph shows you how well the consoles are doing with their old consoles combined. I.e this time last Gen PS2 sold almost 20m more units then what the PS3 has sold. The 360 has sold about 5m more then what the xbox1 sold and well the Wii has sold 25m more then the Gamecube which means the Wii is this gens PS2, the 360 is this gens xbox and the PS3 is this gens gamecube.. If you go over to vgc the analyst has done a nice report for buisness (which i stole the graph from) which shows you the PS3 projection is in line with that graph.

And yes they are worldwide figures. The figures i show and have always showed are pretty much fact.

 

EDIT:

 

Here is the graph i mentioned

 

If you look at the Green and Red bits you see the numbers that the 360 and PS3 have contributed to the total number of sales for this generation. So if you look at the last bar under the 100 week number you see the PS3 has sold 17m and the 360 has sold almost 26m units. But the key part here is if you look at the 360 green bit you see it has consistently grown above the PS3 especially in the last 10 weeks. Thus meaning the gap is increasing rapidly.

 

So projection wise for 150 weeks this will be the graph

 

Now the PS3 part has not been filled in simply because it is the youngest of the consoles. However if you look at the 360 you can see that in its 150th week it had put on another 5m consoles. The Wii well the Wii is just a selling machine. So if you look at that graph the PS3 NEEDS to sell next year at minimum 10m units just to get back to level par. Which is not going to happen. That line will continue to fall and fall. It is following the exact same pattern as the Dreamcast and the Gamecube. So if i had to advise someone who had shares in Sony what to do i would tell them to bail now, seeing as they have fallen over 14% and made a loss of $415m in the past 3 months alone does not make good reading.

Edited 24 November, 2008 by St Marco

[Bentley]

The 360 has sold about 5m more then what the xbox1 sold .

 

Thats nowhere near what the graph says.

[pittdogg]

Haha well the problem is i own all three of the consoles so i think im in a un-biased position to comment on them. They all have their pluses and all have their minus'. People naturally want to defend what they have paid for so it is easier just to slag me off etc.. The truth is that i have said for the best part of 2 years that the PS3 is a console in trouble and not worth the amount paid on it, but because of that i come across as a 360 fanboy when really im just giving buisness advice.

 

The ironic thing is that the PS3 has been on sale now for 100 weeks and this is its graph compared to the other 2 consoles

 

As you can see that is a nasty down curve for Sony. This is what i tried to explain to people but again it comes across like im a fanboy when im just giving the facts.

At the end of the day i couldn't care less as i like all three of the consoles for very different reasons. I use my PS3 for watching films, my 360 for games and my Wii for when we have friends over. At heart i am a hardcore gamer, games like Gears of War will apeal more to me then say Cooking Mama.

Right now the PS3 is losing 100k units a week over the 360. Games wise the 360 is shiffting almost 5 games to every 1 PS3 game, there are reasons why it is doing those numbers. But if you say why your be called a fanboy!

no you come across as an xbox fanboy because you make threads about "xbox outsells wii" "xbox wins award" and make biased threads about ps3. i understand the ps3 has its falts as does you xbox. but it also has its good points its a good bit of technology.i have no regrets about mine. the major fact is you have never made a positive thread about the ps3 and that's why you come across as a fanboy

im not trying to get in an argument with you.im just trying to state something that im sure a few people think

[warsash saint]

I own both & would say my PS3 gets used 75% of the time whilst my 360 25%

 

My PS3 is used for Blu ray (Marco - £25 a disc ?? get real !), media streaming & the odd game

 

360 is used purely for games & then mainly by the kids.

 

If I had to to decide I would say the PS3 is a better buy taking into account everything it does & with Woolworths doing it for about £240 it makes even more sence to get one.

[St Marco]

Thats nowhere near what the graph says.

 

Yes it is....look at the green line you see it is just under the 5m number?

[St Marco]

no you come across as an xbox fanboy because you make threads about "xbox outsells wii" "xbox wins award" and make biased threads about ps3. i understand the ps3 has its falts as does you xbox. but it also has its good points its a good bit of technology.i have no regrets about mine. the major fact is you have never made a positive thread about the ps3 and that's why you come across as a fanboy

im not trying to get in an argument with you.im just trying to state something that im sure a few people think

 

No i make threads that are news worthy. The fact that a western product can beat a Japanese product on home soil is amazing, it as far as im aware has never happened before. So you might look at that thread thinking "fanboy" while those who actually have any knowledge of modern buisness will be thinking "wow".

 

The 360 has a lot of faults, literally! And i say positive stuff about the PS3 all the time. If you see the threads i myself have made have actually been neutral threads. I dont criticise the Wii or the 360 that much because they have had their days of being slagged off, how many times can you start a thread saying "dont get a 360 because it will break?" That is like 3 years ago...

 

The PS3 is living off of the PlayStation legacy. The PS2 alone sold over 120m consoles in under 8 years. It is the benchmark for everything to come. The fact is statisticly but more importantly factually the PS3 is not doing well. So if i said it was or tried to defend it then that would mean i would be a PS3 fanboy which im clearly not. So you try and defend it which as i said is natural for someone who has spent a lot of money on it, thus while you label me a 360 fanboy must in-turn make you a PS3 fanboy.

[St Marco]

 

My PS3 is used for Blu ray (Marco - £25 a disc ?? get real !), media streaming & the odd game

 

In HMV they are around £25. If you buy online then they are between about £17-£20. Again twice the price almost of standard DVD's. I have around 20 Blu-Ray films.

[Thedelldays]

in terms of graphics...they are equal..?

[Danny]

in terms of graphics...they are equal..?

 

Pretty much. Some games obviously look slightly better on one console, but to be honest you'd be hard pushed to notice any real difference.

[warsash saint]

in terms of graphics...they are equal..?

 

I would say most games are similar but have yet to see anything on the Xbox that matches Wipeout HD

[mynameisthehulk]

I predict this thread will end up an all out war between St Marco and anyone who has purchased a PS3

 

Told ya

[St Marco]

Told ya

 

Sorry

 

My new years resolution is to let go of the whole computer sales things. Mainly because my job will then turn into Film Analysis so i will bug the film forum

 

Seriously though as much as i don't show it i do actually really like my PS3. LittleBigPlanet is loads of fun. It is one of those rare games that come along now and then that just makes you really smile. Sort of like when you watch a Disney film with the family when you see a joke aimed at adults that the young ones wont get!

 

The thing i don't like is the way Sony have approached this generation thinking were all sheep and will pay £xyz for something simply because it has the word PlayStation on it. So in that regards i would say yes i dislike Sony. Their whole buisness strategy is just awful and seems like they make it up as they go along. My view is they should have made people choose between having a Blu-Ray player or not, that would of brought the costs down a lot.

 

So while i might be a bit more critical of the PS3 it isn't because of it's games, it has lots of fun games that are as good or in some instances (Oblivion) better then even the PC version. Just at a time of total financial chaos around the world, big fall in PS3 sales etc.. you would expect Sony to cut the price right? Especially in say UK where it is the most expensive? Well apparently not, to make people even more angry Sony have decided to actually increase the price of their products most likely including the PS3

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=28965512

 

It is things like that which annoy me and make me think what i think about Sony. PS3 = great machine, Sony = dirty company that think of quantity rather then quality.

[pittdogg]

st marco what is it that you think makes the ps3 so expensive?. You use xbox live am i right. that is £40 a year for full access to its online facilities where as full access is free on playstation. wireless is about £50 on xbox and free on playstation. and add to that the cost of an hd dvd drive(and yes that is relevant because playstation has its built in blu ray player) so can you find a brand new xbox 360 with 5years xbox live membership, wireless internet, blu ray/hd dvd player, and 80gb of memory for cheeper than a 80gb ps3(which has all of the above)at £299 play.com?

[Thedelldays]

i prefer my ps3...

 

as i have a portable hard drive and it is connected to the ps3 with all my downloaded stuff to watch on the telly rather then the laptop

[St Marco]

st marco what is it that you think makes the ps3 so expensive?. You use xbox live am i right. that is £40 a year for full access to its online facilities where as full access is free on playstation. wireless is about £50 on xbox and free on playstation. and add to that the cost of an hd dvd drive(and yes that is relevant because playstation has its built in blu ray player) so can you find a brand new xbox 360 with 5years xbox live membership, wireless internet, blu ray/hd dvd player, and 80gb of memory for cheeper than a 80gb ps3(which has all of the above)at £299 play.com?

 

The problem is pittdog mate you have no choice but to buy those things. You were not given a choice as you were with a Wii,360,PS2 or even PS1. It was up to you wether you wanted to buy those things. For example you mention there the HD:Dvd drive. In the grand scheme of things a tiny % of 360 owners actually bought one. If you then say compare that to Blu-Ray you see that Blu-Ray sales are actually very poor. I remember telling you over a year ago it would not catch on and right now i appear to be right. With even the head of Warner Brothers saying

"We think this is a do-or-die time for Blu-ray. We must get it established as a favorite holiday item"

http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-dvd-sales-down-blu-rays-missing-its-mark-whats-hollywood-to-do/

In fact figures say that for every Blu-Ray player out there only 1 Blu-Ray film has been sold per unit. In a time where they have no competition at all you would of expected the format to do much better. But we see for last week that its number for film sales is still under 10% and falling. If you look at this you see the numbers.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom989113PBN/#/2

While DVD sales are increasing Blu-Ray sales are decreasing.

 

So my whole point of that is you were not given a choice wether or not to buy into Blu-Ray technology. Because you were not given that choice the price of the console goes up almost £100 ($200). So your effectivley paying money to pro-long a format that looks like it could die with in the next few years. Then when the next generation of technology comes about most likely your Blu-Ray discs and your PS3 discs will not work with it.

So with the HD:Dvd you were given the choice. If you watch films then you would buy one, if you don't then well you wouldn't. If you didn't you would save a lot of money.

 

Then moving on to other things such as the internet. I actually don't have xbox live. I used to but no longer have the time. With the PS3 you get a built in wireless adaptor. With the 360 you don't. To get one for the 360 will cost you £35-£50. Now the same rule applies as before. If you bought the PS3 you don't have a choice you have to pay for it as it is included in the console. If you are like me and have a router then chances are your router will be somewhere near your xbox/tv/sky/pc etc.. so rather then buy a wireless why don't you run a £3 ethernet lead from your router to your 360? It gives you a constant connection and a more reliable connection which runs faster and wont suffer interference. Now on my PS3 i have the RJ-45 plugged into the router and i bet a lot of you do too. So again the cost of the PS3 is increased by about £50 ($80) because you are told you must have a wireless adapter! Where as on the 360 you buy the wireless adapter if you need it. You are not charged if you don't need it. Which then brings us onto the reliability of the two services. While i don't agree with paying to use a service such as xbox live i can appreciate how much it costs to run it. If you have 25m people all on one service downloading everything/playing online/streaming films etc.. etc.. then that is going to hammer any system. Buy paying for it means you get demo's and things very fast and early, you get updates the moment they are made and more importantly you have various applications which enable you to speak to your friends and so on. PSN is a service which i feel gets a lot of negative press for unjust things, for a free service it does what it is supposed to. But is it really free? Again with the xbox live, if you don't want to use it you don't have to. You still get all the updates and can use all of the things on there.

 

So i could keep going but i think you get the point i make. You look at the prices and think "well if i bought those things on the 360 would make the 360 more expensive". Which it obviously would. But the way most people look at it is like this

-Don't need Blu-Ray as i don't watch to many films let alone buy that many.

-Don't need wireless as the console is in the same room as the router/computer

etc.. etc..

Which means why should people have to pay for the things they don't want and more importantly won't use?

 

As for the memory thing all those people without memory were actually given free memory cards of 256mb. The price of a Hard Drive (20GB) is about £40.

http://www.game.co.uk/Xbox360/Hardware/Accessory/~r327028/Xbox-360-Hard-Drive-20GB/?s=hard%20drive

Think you can even get 60GB and 120GB ones now too.

 

So for £299 you could get

A pro 360 (Gear1&2+Fallout 3)

60GB Harddrive, Wireless controller, Wireless headset, HDMI cable, Upscalling dvd drive etc.. for £195. So that is a lot of stuff.

Then if you wanted a wireless and full year subscription to live that would be say £50 for the wireless and then say £30 for the subscription.

So that is about £25 less then the £299 you said.

 

However if it was me i would get the pro with fifa 09 for £170. Then use the cable to use HD and use the ethernet cable from my router. Then with the £130 i saved could buy 3-4 brand new games.

[pittdogg]

my point was marco what would 80gb of memory a high def player wireless and 5 YEARS xbox live full subscription cost. and i do believe you would be able to tell me this in no more than the figure it comes to(witch is allot more)you dont need to write an essay just a number £???. I run my ps3 through wireless because myself router is in the bedroom connected to the main bt point and dont want a wire going through my house to connect it up. i have about 10 blu rays i which when we have friends round they love to watch because of the amazing picture and sound quality is eg 1080p picture, DTS HD master audio. and the pure fact i can play my friends for absolutely free is good enough for me.

i have never said the xbox is crap simply because its not

and unlike your belief i am not defending something because i paid allot of money for it

if i buy something and i think its s##t i will tell people

the only reason i post replys to you is because the ps3 just isn't the piece of crap you make it out to be. its an advanced bit of technology and you get allot for you money

[St Marco]

my point was marco what would 80gb of memory a high def player wireless and 5 YEARS xbox live full subscription cost. and i do believe you would be able to tell me this in no more than the figure it comes to(witch is allot more)you dont need to write an essay just a number £???. I run my ps3 through wireless because myself router is in the bedroom connected to the main bt point and dont want a wire going through my house to connect it up. i have about 10 blu rays i which when we have friends round they love to watch because of the amazing picture and sound quality is eg 1080p picture, DTS HD master audio. and the pure fact i can play my friends for absolutely free is good enough for me.

i have never said the xbox is crap simply because its not

and unlike your belief i am not defending something because i paid allot of money for it

if i buy something and i think its s##t i will tell people

the only reason i post replys to you is because the ps3 just isn't the piece of crap you make it out to be. its an advanced bit of technology and you get allot for you money

 

And to answer your question about the cost (sorry i didn't understand before)

That would be £149 for the high def player and 60GB harddrive (they don't make an 80GB one). Say £50 for wireless adapter and £30 a year for subscription x 5. So in total that would be just under £300.

 

But i guess you didn't hear that we will most likely be paying for PSN,Home and future games like MAG?

Edited 4 December, 2008 by St Marco
can't be bothered to argue, people are entitled to their own opinions

[mynameisthehulk]

I lol'd

[Crouchie's Lawyer]

I have a Wii and an 360, and while I have no need for a PS3 at the moment, you simply cannot argue with the above comments Marco, no matter how much you love the 360. I would imagine the main reason why the 360 has out sold the PS3 is simply due to cost. Its about double the cost, and at present, with more games available, the xbox is winning. If the two were the same price and there were as many games for the PS3 as the 360, I would very much doubt that the 360 would be selling more (And thats coming from a 360 owner).

 

I think the Blu-ray player, wireless facility and built in hard drive are facts you cannot argue with as to why a lot of people favour the PS3, even if you dont.

[Draino76]

I would get an X box but the controllers are w.a.n.k.

 

PS3 all the way man.

[Crouchie's Lawyer]

I would get an X box but the controllers are w.a.n.k.

 

PS3 all the way man.

 

TBF, I never thought I would get used to playing with a different controller, but they are fine to use now. I actually find it easier to use the analogue on the xbox controller for some reason. Doesnt seem as 'jerky' as the PS analogue sticks

[labibs]

I have a PS3 and I'm very happy with it. My little brother has a 360 and he loves it. I think both have decent games out for them and most games are dual platform these days.

 

Yes the 360 has a larger install base, but I do think that a lot of this is due to pricing and the year's headstart, Microsoft must be making a big loss one each unit sold (Sony must be with the PS3 as well to be fair). When I was choosing which console to buy I looked at the various options and for me the PS3 appealed more. I wasn't happy with having to play £40 a year for online play, plus having to buy a wireless bridge and a controller charger, when all of this was already built into the PS3. I was a bit put off by the RROD debacle as well.

 

Both of the systems have pros and cons:

 

There are some great exclusive games out for the 360 (Mass Effect, Fable II) but there are also some great exclusives for the PS3 (MGS4, Uncharted). The 360 had / has RROD issues and charges you for wireless play. The PS3 requires some lengthy installs of games and is apparently difficult to develop for.

 

At the end of day I would look at the exclusive titles for each machine and decide which one appeals to you the most. I could not care less about which system has sold more in Japan, or who won the sales war over Black Friday. Both are great machines and I'm just glad that as gamers we have so many good games available for us to play!

[Barfy]

There were a number of reasons for me buying a PS3 (old games I still wanted play, friends who have them etc.), but the main ones for me were it's long term prospects and the fact that everything is in one system (I'm a very lazy man).

 

I also happen to think that the PS3 looks a lot better than the 360, which although seemingly trivial is just another factor that tips the balance in favour of the PS3.

 

To be honest I'm not really bothered what the sales figures in Japan for the last quarter were for each system. As someone pointed out above, the 360 is initially cheaper, so will sell more; simple economics really. But is it more likely that the 360 will be replaced by the next next-gen console earlier than the PS3?

 

Right now, the only thing that interests me is how do I get better at COD5 online, what games are coming out next, and if/when will there be new Final Fantasy and Assasins Creed games.

[labibs]

 

Right now, the only thing that interests me is how do I get better at COD5 online, what games are coming out next, and if/when will there be new Final Fantasy and Assasins Creed games.

 

Have you seen this about Assassin's creed 2?

 

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=26688230&om_act=convert&om_clk=morenews&tag=morenews;title;15

[pittdogg]

And to answer your question about the cost (sorry i didn't understand before)

That would be £149 for the high def player and 60GB harddrive (they don't make an 80GB one). Say £50 for wireless adapter and £30 a year for subscription x 5. So in total that would be just under £300.

 

But i guess you didn't hear that we will most likely be paying for PSN,Home and future games like MAG?

 

yeah i did hear about having to pay for that mag game. not to happy about that. but playstation home is free. you get a free apartment and full access to public areas. im in the beta its mad. though there is a shopping mail where you can buy new clothes,stuff for your house and an estate agents. some content is brought using real money and some using money you have earned(a new system is being set up to award you money for earning trophys on games)

[thesaint sfc]

I have an XBOX 360 because its cheaper in every aspect.

 

If money wasn't a factor and I didn't have an obsession with buying new games nearly every week, I'd have a PS3. It has more power and a blu ray player.

 

Can't go wrong with an XBOX 360 though.

[Barfy]

yeah i did hear about having to pay for that mag game. not to happy about that. but playstation home is free. you get a free apartment and full access to public areas. im in the beta its mad. though there is a shopping mail where you can buy new clothes,stuff for your house and an estate agents. some content is brought using real money and some using money you have earned(a new system is being set up to award you money for earning trophys on games)

 

I've been on Home beta too, it's quite cool. Have you played the bowling yet? I even played the demo of Echochrome in the bowling alley too.

 

I can see Home becoming a little bit addictive once it starts expanding, and it can;t be too bad as even my girlfriend wanted me to set her up a charcter to play on it!

[Baj]

how can i get on the home beta?

[Barfy]

how can i get on the home beta?

 

I got an invite from PSN with a code to download the software. I know a couple of other people who have had the same, and the only thing we had in common was that we'd all bought stuff from the online store. I don't know if that is the criteria, or whether they are just rolling it out gradually to all users.

[Danny]

I got an invite from PSN with a code to download the software. I know a couple of other people who have had the same, and the only thing we had in common was that we'd all bought stuff from the online store. I don't know if that is the criteria, or whether they are just rolling it out gradually to all users.

 

In he states you got it if you downloaded the 'Home' theme. I haven't tried it here, but I have bought stuff from the store and haven't yet got an invite.

 

Booooo.

[Barfy]

In he states you got it if you downloaded the 'Home' theme. I haven't tried it here, but I have bought stuff from the store and haven't yet got an invite.

 

Booooo.

 

The only theme I downloaded was one from Pain, but I have bought a number of games (Pain, Warhawk and a couple of PS1 'classics') from the store. Just make sure PSN emails don't go in your trash folder!

[pittdogg]

how can i get on the home beta?

 

ad me baj i might be abel to get you in

[St Marco]

Not sure if i should of posted this as no doubt it will make me look even more of a Sony hater but today Sony announced 8000 (potentially 16000) people will lose their jobs

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/playstation-division-under-review-as-part-of-corporate-changes

 

Naturally anyone losing their job is not nice especially when so close to xmas, but firing that many must mean the fact their income dropped by 76% this year and shares fell to a near 20 year low would mean they have no choice. Not a good sign really.

[Draino76]

Sony is at a 15 year low; Microsoft on a 10 year low. I believe there is a recession on.

[Scummer]

how can i get on the home beta?

 

In the Sunday Times this week they reckoned that Home was being launched within the next 10 days (so the next week now).

[Barfy]

Not sure if i should of posted this as no doubt it will make me look even more of a Sony hater but today Sony announced 8000 (potentially 16000) people will lose their jobs

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/playstation-division-under-review-as-part-of-corporate-changes

 

Naturally anyone losing their job is not nice especially when so close to xmas, but firing that many must mean the fact their income dropped by 76% this year and shares fell to a near 20 year low would mean they have no choice. Not a good sign really.

 

At least that article provided a link to some useul information:

 

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/home-to-go-live-worldwide-tomorrow

 

Home goes live tomorrow.

 

EDIT: I just read another article on that site, and apparently 8000 (although a lot of jobs) is only 5% of the Sony workforce... and they are to be phased out over the next 2 years:

 

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sony-to-axe-8000-jobs

 

Very bad news for those affected, but hardly indicates an imminent meltdown in Sony's operations!

Edited 10 December, 2008 by Barfy
Information

[Bentley]

Home is released tomorrow?

 

Nice.

[fish fingers]

I have a Megadrive, i am thinking of upfrading this year. What would you suggest?

[Barfy]

I have a Megadrive, i am thinking of upfrading this year. What would you suggest?

 

I'd go for a SNES myself. Fifa '94 and Sensible Soccer are awesome.

[Bentley]

I have a Megadrive, i am thinking of upfrading this year. What would you suggest?

 

Dreamcast.

[St Marco]

At least that article provided a link to some useul information:

 

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/home-to-go-live-worldwide-tomorrow

 

Home goes live tomorrow.

 

EDIT: I just read another article on that site, and apparently 8000 (although a lot of jobs) is only 5% of the Sony workforce... and they are to be phased out over the next 2 years:

 

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/sony-to-axe-8000-jobs

 

Very bad news for those affected, but hardly indicates an imminent meltdown in Sony's operations!

 

16000 jobs are to go. Sony have a total 180000 workforce. Losing 5% of your workforce is not good, it is not common especially in electronics. If you read the analysts notes in that link your see he says that won't be anywhere near enough. Shares are at an all time low and on 11th of December Sony will be announcing that ALL Sony gaming division products (PS3/PSP/PS2) are all down by around 30% on the same period for last year despite the PS3 seeing a price cut for that period and having it's strongest games line up. Right now it has lost $3BILLION in 3 years on the PS3, losing a further $1Billion already in the past quarter. Now the problem is Sony only makes $500m-$900m a year profits. As you can see that would mean the entire Sony company will have lost over 3 years profits trying to keep the PS3 afloat. The company is run by shareholders who all want their money so naturally as i predicted Sony will have to scale back their gaming division and in their own words "Withdraw from non-profit making business'", their gaming division is not a profit making business.

So yes Sony are in meltdown and have been since the end of 2004. Soon as they announce those figures on 11th of December expect their shares to fall into the abyss.

They started to make these cut backs last year such as selling off the Cell of the PS3 to Toshiba. That's right, your PS3 is actually made now by Toshiba (the guys who made HD-Dvd). They then sold off many of their factories that make the products especially the PS3, and it looks like they are having to shut more of them down. So that means lower numbers of the consoles will be made thus reducing the costs for the company. But the worst part is games will start being cancelled which we have already seen with the cancellation in the past few months of The Getaway and Eight Days plus others i doubt you have heard of.

 

So it is not the end of Sony, far from it. But they have bled money for too long and now it has caught up with them. The harsh part is that all these people have been told they need to look for new jobs now, not in 2010. That is when their contracts expire, they will be given redundency pay. But that is the global situation at the moment, im sure each of us knows someone who has lost their job recently. It puts things into perspective.

[Barfy]

16000 jobs are to go. Sony have a total 180000 workforce. Losing 5% of your workforce is not good, it is not common especially in electronics not good, but not uncommon during times of recession. Restructuring is necessary when things haven't been going well in any industry, surely?. If you read the analysts notes in that link your see he says that won't be anywhere near enough probably not, 20% worldwide wouldn't be unrealistic. Shares are at an all time low no-one is flourishing at the moment; recession and on 11th of December Sony will be announcing that ALL Sony gaming division products (PS3/PSP/PS2) are all down by around 30% on the same period for last year despite the PS3 seeing a price cut for that period and having it's strongest games line up I don't know about you, but I like a lot of people around the world have had to tighten up on spending, entertainment is always likely to be the first to go. Right now it has lost $3BILLION in 3 years on the PS3, losing a further $1Billion already in the past quarter. Now the problem is Sony only makes $500m-$900m a year profits. As you can see that would mean the entire Sony company will have lost over 3 years profits trying to keep the PS3 afloat. The company is run by shareholders who all want their money so naturally as i predicted Sony will have to scale back their gaming division and in their own words "Withdraw from non-profit making business'", their gaming division is not a profit making business so are they going to stop producing the PS3? and development of future incarnations of the playstation?.

So yes Sony are in meltdown and have been since the end of 2004. Soon as they announce those figures on 11th of December expect their shares to fall into the abyss as they do in all knee-jerk reactions, but Sony as an entity is big enough to weather the storm.

They started to make these cut backs last year such as selling off the Cell of the PS3 to Toshiba outsourcing is not uncommon. That's right, your PS3 is actually made now by Toshiba (the guys who made HD-Dvd). They then sold off many of their factories that make the products especially the PS3 outsourcing, and it looks like they are having to shut more of them down. So that means lower numbers of the consoles will be made thus reducing the costs for the company outsourcing doesn't necessarily mean reduced production, it's a common method of reducing costs. But the worst part is games will start being cancelled which we have already seen with the cancellation in the past few months of The Getaway never heard of itand Eight Days ditto plus others i doubt you have heard of nope.

 

So it is not the end of Sony, far from it. But they have bled money for too long and now it has caught up with them. The harsh part is that all these people have been told they need to look for new jobs now, not in 2010. That is when their contracts expire, they will be given redundency pay. But that is the global situation at the moment, im sure each of us knows someone who has lost their job recently. It puts things into perspective.it does and I'm sure Microsoft will have to cut back in some areas as well, though maybe not as drastically

 

I've no idea why you dislike the ps3 so much, but I'm sure Bill Gates would be pleased with your fanatical devotion to making Sony look like a two bit newcomer to the electronics and entertainment industry.

[Danny]

So, anyways, Home.

 

Should be good, eh?